Sidewalk Bridge Collapses at Troublesome CitizenM Hotel Site on the Bowery

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Notch another controversy for the CitizenM hotel development site on the Bowery (and contractor Rinaldi Group), currently sitting at roughly five stories. Yesterday afternoon – as workers toiled in the heaviest of the rain – the sidewalk bridge attached to 189 Bowery keeled over and collapsed. Thank the storm and its winds.

We’re told that no one was hurt in the incident. The Department of Buildings is aware, and a complaint was notched to this property record noting the structural failure (“gust of wind”) and a “cracked window next door.” And now the development is in the crosshairs of the DOB’s BEST Squad enforcement team.

This latest further exposes the problems endemic of the nineteen-story CitizenM hotel since ground-break. Whether it’s a busted fire hydrant that gushed water for days or the purported overall lack of safety supervision during construction, there’s plenty to discuss.

It’s now business as usual, despite the partial stop-work orders still active at 189 Bowery.

As previously reported, the Rinaldi Group was recently suspended after an investigation into the death of a construction worker at the Riu Hotel job site on West 46th Street. Christian Ginesi, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran, was killed May 5 when he tried to evacuate a stalled elevator 24 flights up; he plunged to his death. As a result, permits were revoked and work halted at Rinaldi’s seventeen city sites.